Stumping for Values

The day after the election, the Sojourners and Call to Renewal
staffs had our regular monthly chapel service. There was a lot of
discouragement about the outcome of the election and fears about
what a second Bush term would mean for many vulnerable people,
even though there had never been great enthusiasm in our building
for the rather visionless campaign of Democrat John Kerry.

In my sermon that day, I focused on Psalm 46, which says,
"The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he
utters his voice, the earth melts" and ends with these
words, "Be still, and know that I am God!" After the
sermon we had a period of shared reflection and then prayer
together. We arent political partisans, and are often
critical of both Left and Right, but most of us did not want to
see this election outcome. But as I said that day, "As
Christians, we never know what God is up to."

I had no idea how true those words would come to be. The
election results and a flawed exit poll question quickly sparked
a national discussion on faith and "moral values." We
have been in the middle of it ever since. I expected some
post-election rest and quiet after the long, hard work done by
our staff members during the campaign period. But since the
election, the activity in our office has skyrocketed. Almost
every day we receive invitations to do media interviews; the
Democrats are calling for help in serious reassessment after a
sobering defeat; the progressive religious community is
mobilizing even more than before the election; churches,
Christian colleges, and seminaries are calling to ask for help in
understanding "faith and politics"; and our magazine
and online readers are contacting us to offer even more support
for a mission they say is "now more important than
ever!"

I have been especially warmed by the flood of grateful and
encouraging e-mails weve received after appearances on Meet
the Press and many other network and cable news shows, many
from people who hadnt known of us. Through the myriad
television appearances and radio and newspaper interviews, we are
getting the word to even more people than before the election. In
30 years, we have never had such opportunities to get our message
out to so many; it is striking a very responsive chord.

In the midst of all that, HarperCollins, the publisher of my
forthcoming book, decided to move up the books launch from
April 1 to Jan. 18 - Inauguration week - at the National Press
Club. The books title, Gods Politics: Why the
Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesnt Get It, and its
content are perfectly timed to this moment in American politics.
Weve already gotten media interest in the book, and I have
been invited to join ABCs Peter Jennings as a commentator
for the networks Inauguration coverage on Jan. 20. In early
January there are also significant opportunities scheduled to
address Senate and House members on these critical issues.

A national book tour will follow, a "stump circuit"
focused on faith, moral values, and politics just as the nation
has been awakened to that conversation. None of this, I suspect,
would be happening if the election had turned out differently.

AT AN UNPRECEDENTED gathering of more than 50 progressive
faith leaders and organizations in early December, we sensed the
possibilities and promise of this moment. There are great
political dangers ahead, but also prospects for a real spiritual
awakening of faith with a social conscience. We rejected the
identification of "Religious Left" as opposed to the
"Religious Right" and spoke of a "prophetic
politics" that goes deeper than Left and Right, with the
ability to challenge both.

We called for unity without uniformity and named all those who
could come together in a faith that does justice and seeks peace,
from mainline Protestants to moderate evangelicals, from
progressive Catholics to black, Latino, and Asian churches,
joining those from the Jewish and Islamic communities and others
who seek to make the connection between spirituality and social
justice.

The board of Sojourners recently met and felt a very keen
sense of the possibilities of our mission and the important role
we might play at this critical time in our nations history
amidst the worlds pressing problems. While we are very
grateful for the amazing opportunities we are now having in the
media, we decided that the expansion of the "alternative
media" that Sojourners provides is more important than ever
in providing a consistent public message, both when the national
media microphones are offered to us and when they are not.

We want to expand the circulation of both SojoMail, our free
weekly e-zine, and the magazine, widely syndicate our op-ed
columns in newspapers across the country, start regular
syndicated radio commentaries, and greatly expand our online
constituency, capacities, and activities for education,
organizing, and advocacy. We especially want to focus on a new
generation of Christians at evangelical colleges and Catholic
universities and to identify local churches across this country
that are ready for real action.

The book tour for Gods Politics will be our next
step; it will help lay a foundation for offering a more visible
and prophetic message in American public life. With the help of a
great publisher like HarperCollins, the media opportunities the
book is already generating, and - perhaps most important - the
strategic involvement of our own loyal constituency of Sojourners
and Call to Renewal people around the country, we hope to make a
real difference.

We want to make a book tour into a movement-building tour, a
media opportunity into an outreach opportunity, and a new
political openness into a new political direction. And for all
that we need your help to promote the tour and the books
message (see page 14 for an excerpt). We need your help in
opening up opportunities in your churches, colleges, and
communities and, perhaps most important, in talking with your
family members, church members, friends, neighbors, and
co-workers about how they can get involved in this. Along the
way, well try to provide you with some concrete activities
and directions to pursue through the magazine and, especially,
through our weekly SojoMail (visit www.sojo.net for a free
subscription).

Well use the Web site to keep you posted on the upcoming
media discussions and the book tour schedule. We need your
involvement to turn these wonderful opportunities into something
that makes a real difference. Ill see you on the road.

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners. For a
schedule of Wallis speaking events, including the Gods
Politics book tour, visit www.sojo.net.

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